Gehlot demands Assembly session

Jaipur: On a day when Rajasthan High Court gave a breather to former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and 18 other MLAs by ordering status quo on their disqualification notices, high drama played out at Raj Bhavan in Jaipur where Congress MLAs staged a dharna demanding an immediate session of the legislative Assembly.

Soon after the court's stand was known, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot told reporters that the Governor was 'acting under duress from the top' and therefore their request for holding a session of the Assembly was not being agreed to. Gehlot then announced that along with party MLAs, who are staying at a resort, would be paying a visit to Governor Kalraj Mishra.

"This is a simple process where the Governor agrees to call us. It is beyond our understanding why he is not agreeing. We believe due to pressure from above and under duress, he is not agreeing to call an assembly session. We are really saddened by this," Gehlot told reporters in Jaipur ahead of meeting the Governor.

Following this, the MLAs along with Gehlot left in buses to Raj Bhavan or Governor's House. After a brief meeting, MLAs sat on the lawns in the Raj Bhawan holding a dharna and sloganeering that the assembly session be called immediately. As of Friday evening, the MLAs continue to be stationed there and there is no official word on when they would return.

"We have taken the initiative of requesting that the assembly session should be called. The opposition too should support us in this but here the reverse is only happening. Ideally, the Governor should accept the recommendation of cabinet to hold the assembly or tell us what his queries or concerns are," Gehlot told reporters later in the evening adding that the next course of action will be decided after hearing from the Governor about his views.

While the Congress is hopeful that a session will be called on the grounds that the Governor has to accept advice of Cabinet in calling the session, a section of the party is unsure given the matter is sub-judice and that could be a reason given for not calling an immediate session.

The Congress has now decided to hold a series of protests in the state outside party offices of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) across the state on Saturday accusing it of playing a role in attempt to topple the state government.